


Do No Harm

by Turbulent_Muse



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Canon Divergence, F/M, Swearing, The end of the hospital scene goes a bit differently
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 18:57:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18452621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Turbulent_Muse/pseuds/Turbulent_Muse
Summary: '“Wait, you can’t leave me alone with this thing!”But the door closes behind Anne and Dan is left alone with the thing behind the glass.'





	Do No Harm

**Author's Note:**

> I had so much trouble coming up with a title for this that I almost just called it "Dan Gets To Be a Badass"

“Where do you think you’re going?!”

“Anywhere but here.”

“Wait, you can’t leave me alone with this thing!”

But the door closes behind Anne and Dan _is_ left alone with the thing behind the glass. He stares at it for a moment as it presses itself against the transparent barrier.

“What are you?” He asks it. He gets no response. He didn’t expect one.

That thing was inside Eddie Brock, eating him and at least somewhat controlling his actions.

Speaking of that, Dan takes a moment to feel his neck, looking for signs of permanent damage (none) and trying to guess where the bruises would form (everywhere). That just makes him think more about how _dangerous_ the parasite is. What is he supposed to do with it?

Wait. The MRI. The noise of the MRI had gotten it out of Eddie, so maybe further exposure would kill it. Dan turns back around to start the machine again and…And sees that the creature is gone. Fuck.

……

“Eddie! Wait!” Anne yells after him as he storms off towards the elevators.

“Why?”

“Didn’t you hear Dan? We have to get you to the ICU!”

“I heard him say he can’t fix this, yeah. So if I’m gonna die I want to go get drunk first.”

“Eddie! We have to try to keep you alive.”

“Why do you care, huh?”

“What.”

“Why do you care? I hurt you, Annie. I hurt you _bad_. I’m nothing but a screw-up and I ruined every single good thing I had in my life. You were right, it wasn’t Carlton Drake or the network, it was me. And now you’ve moved on and you don’t care about me anymore so why can’t you just let me die in peace?”

She slaps him. He looks at her confusedly.

“Of course I still care about you, Eddie!”

“Wha—”

Then the elevator dings and the doors open.

……

Dan’s frantic search of the hospital is interrupted by a scream. A scream from a voice he recognizes. Anne’s voice.

He turns around and starts running towards the noize as fast as he can and as he does he trips over a small dog and falls flat on his face.

Dammit, usually Gemini at least stayed close to its owner. Why is it wandering the halls of the hospital?

Not knowing what else to do, Dan picks up the dog and brings it with him as he runs towards where he heard the scream. But as soon as he finds himself in a mostly empty hallway _something_ pulls him and the dog into a supply closet and he blacks out.

……

Dan wakes up in the driver’s seat of his car with no idea how he got there.

“How did I get here?” He asks.

**_I brought you here._ **

“Ah! Who said that?!”

A tendril of black goo extends itself from Dan’s shoulder and forms a face.

**“I am Venom.”**

The parasite. It’s in him. It’s _talking_ to him. Dan decides to process that later and just react to it now. “Get out of me!” Dan tries to grab the tendril but it quickly sinks back into him. “Dammit!”

**_Trust me, you are not my first choice of host. You are the one who told Eddie that I am a parasite. That I was killing him._ **

“You _were_ killing him!”

_**No! I would have repaired the damage! But that doesn’t matter now.** _

“Of course it matters!”

_**Eddie and Anne have been captured by the Life Foundation. Carlton Drake will most certainly kill them.** _

“Oh.” Dan says, shocked. “Why?”

_**Does that matter? Drive!** _

Dan puts on his seatbelt and starts driving.

“But why do you care, why do you want to save them?”

_**Does** _ **that** _**matter?** _

Dan thinks for a moment.

“Yes. Yes it does.”

Venom grumbles.

_**Fine. It matters because I like Anne and Eddie is mine. I do not want either of them to die.** _

Dan knows he shouldn’t trust the parasite, Venom. He knows this…but…it doesn’t feel like the creature is lying. “So…You really weren’t going to kill Eddie?”

**_No._ **

“Are you going to kill me?”

**_Not right now. You are too useful._ **

Dan thinks for another moment, prioritizing his emotional reactions and deciding what’s most important. He starts driving faster.

“Alright. Let’s go save Anne and Eddie.”

_**And get me out of this subpar host—** _

“Are you referring to me?!”

_**And back with Eddie. Where I belong.** _

“I’ve got no problem with you leaving but I don’t think I can let you go back to Eddie. You hurt him and he needs a hospital if he’s going to survive what you did.”

Dan suddenly feels all his muscles lock up, he can’t move.

**_Who says you’re going to have a choice in the matter, Dan?_ **

“Oh, for a second there I forgot,” Dan says bitterly through forcibly clenched teeth. “You’re a fucking _monster_!”

**Me _a monster? It is you who would condemn me to die without a host. Did you not take a vow to “Do no harm?” I can see it in your mind, Dan, but you would kill me and Eddie. No hospital can save him, but I can. I can heal him._**

Venom reluctantly gives Dan back control of his body once he’s made his point. Dan almost doesn’t notice though because he’s so preoccupied. “ _Heal_ him? You can do that? Really?”

_**Fine, as a show of good faith, I will demonstrate.** _

Then the lingering pain in Dan’s neck is just gone. He puts a hand to his throat in wonder. “How…How did you do that?”

Focus!

Venom scolds.

_**We must get to the Life Foundation to rescue Eddie and Anne!** _

“Right…Okay. Okay. But what do we do once we get there?”

_**Leave that to me.** _

……

Eddie awakes strapped to a chair and hearing Anne call his name. He opens his eyes to see she’s restrained in the corner of the room. Then the man that shot a tranquilizer dart at him, (and then, presumably, at Anne) walks into the room.

“Listen,” Eddie starts. “You can kill me, because I’m dying anyway.”

“Oh I’m not _just_ going to kill you.” The goon tries to interrupt. “That wouldn’t—”

“But let Anne go.” Eddie continues. “Just let her go, okay, she’s got nothing to do with this.”

“Sorry.” The man says with zero remorse in his voice. “That’s not my call.”

Just then Carlton Drake walks into the room. “Treece, can you please wait outside?” He says calmly and the other man leaves. Drake looks from Eddie to Anne. “Neither of you have the symbiote, _where_ is my symbiote?!”

Eddie is just about to give a snarky comeback when Anne cuts him off.

“You _bastard_! You think you can just _kidnap_ people? You think there won’t be consequences for this? You entitled, slimy, disgusting little _fuck_!”

Drake looks stunned for a moment and so does Eddie. Then Drake shakes it off. “Answer the question! Where is my symbiote?!”

“You know what, even if I knew I wouldn’t tell you anyway. Because I don’t trust you. And you’re insane.”

“And a douchebag!”

“And a douchebag.”

Now Drake seem angry. He looks between the two of them, clenches his teeth, and then he isn’t Drake anymore. Then a towering gray symbiote is in the room with them. Anne and Eddie both scream.

“Oh god!”

“Holy shit!”

**“Where is he?! Where’s Venom?!”**

The symbiote snarls. Anne screams again.

“That is the ugliest looking thing I have ever seen!” Eddie adds.

The creature shifts back to Drake and he sighs. “Well, now I have no use for either of you. Treece! Come clean up your mess.”

……

“Anne, I’m sorry.” Eddie says as the armed men lead them out into the woods.

“This isn’t your fault, Eddie.”

“Yes it is. You’re only caught up in this mess because I came to you for help.”

“You _needed_ help, Eddie. And I didn’t have to track you down across the city and drag you to the hospital.”

“Why did you?”

“I…”

“Wow.” Treece interjects casually. “You guys make a cute couple.”

“We’re not a couple anymore.” Eddie replies.

“Jackass.” Anne adds.

They stop walking. Eddie and Anne turn around. Eddie makes an effort to grab Treece’s gun but just ends up on the ground, Anne tries to rush to his side but another of the men directs her to get down on her knees next to him.

“For the last time, asshole, let her go!” Eddie yells.

“It’s not happening, Eddie.” Treece replies. “You have no leverage without your friend.”

“Whatever! Fine! It doesn’t even matter if you kill us, because the is something so much bigger than this going on.” Eddie says back. “It’s bigger than me…” It’s at this point that Eddie and Anne see one of the men get pulled off into the distance by black tendrils. Anne’s eyes go wide. Eddie can’t help but smile as the other men disappear the same way. “And it’s a _lot_ bigger than you.” Eddie almost starts to laugh.

“What?” Treece questions.

“Karma’s a bitch.”

“I don’t believe in karma.” Then Treece’s head is bitten off.

It’s Venom, Venom’s back and he’s saved their lives. Eddie and Anne are both speechless. Then Venom walks towards Eddie. “Hi, Eddie.” He says in a voice both otherworldly and slightly familiar. Then he pulls Eddie to his feet, bends down, and kisses him. After a moment’s hesitation Eddie leans into the kiss.

Anne’s jaw drops in shock, and she’s even more shocked when Venom melts back into Eddie to reveal Dan, who is still kissing Eddie.

As soon as Venom is completely back inside Eddie Dan pushes himself away. They all stand in shocked silence for a moment.

“Oh god.” Dan breaks the silence. “Oh my god I killed all of those guys! I _bit_ someone’s _head_ off!”

“Yeah, I’ve been there, it’s not fun. But remember that it wasn’t you, it was Venom.”

Eddie continues talking but Dan can barely hear him. He sinks down to the ground and stays there on his knees. Anne leans down to talk to him.

“Dan, honey, are you okay?” She sounds concerned.

“I killed those people. And don’t say it wasn’t me because I _wanted_ to kill them. I saw them pointing guns at you and I wanted them _gone_.”

“Dan, you saved us. They were going to kill us and you saved us from them. You did good.”

“Yeah. Yeah, okay. Thanks Anne. Why don’t you go see what Eddie’s talking about, I think I need to stay here for a minute.”

“Okay.” Anne says and leaves reluctantly.

Dan stays on the ground and thinks for a minute about how upset he isn’t that he killed those men. The words Venom spoke to him back in the car echo in his mind. The parasite was right, not much of what he’s done today has been in accordance with “Do no harm.” But he had done it to save people, and one of those people was the woman he loved. He didn’t regret it at all, that’s what had him so shaken.

Anne walks over to him, obviously angry. He notices that Eddie is gone.

“Come on Dan, we’re leaving.” Anne says tersely.

“Where are we going?” Dan asks as she helps him back to his feet.

“To save the goddamn world.” Anne replies.

Dan figures he can save his ethical crisis for later and follows her.

……

It’s later. They saved the world. Although, honestly, Dan didn’t really help much beyond saving Anne and Eddie.

He’s in bed now, next to Anne, lying awake. It’s like the trolley problem, he decides. He helped kill some people and in exchange the entire world survived. It was obviously worth it, but was it ethical? Maybe it’s utilitarianism. Maybe it _was_ unethical but one man doing something bad is worth everyone else’s happiness.

Anne shifts in her sleep and Dan looks over at her. He looks at her for a long time. Screw ethics, he decides. Screw philosophy, and maybe, just this once, screw “Do no harm.” There wasn’t a single thing on this world or any other that could convince him he hadn’t done the right thing.

**Author's Note:**

> "But Muse, why did Venom give Dan any control at all during the car scene?" Venom doesn't fucking know how to drive. 
> 
> I was originally going to end this fic after Dan's "I bit someone's head off" line but I figured I needed to fully explore how Dan would react to being partially responsible for several people's deaths.


End file.
